Im fairly sure its not just on DP, but on all VB boards, I find that the search results are very innaccurate (almost completely irrelevant) when searching for something. Am I using it incorrectly or do other's find that?
Just random stuff. Search for titles only appears ok, its when you search for keywords included in the descriptions you get all this random stuff.
I typically get bad results from vb, but that's really anything that uses mysql full text searching as well. That's why google makes money and the web doesn't belong to the likes of Oracle or Microsoft. Weighting search results intelligently is extremely difficult. Using the advanced search helps a great deal, but even then I've run into problems - sometimes something I'm looking for is mentioned frequently, but the info I want is buried because it's aged a little too much. Try using a site: search if you are still having difficulty. I've never had a problem getting to the info I want, just in the number of steps it takes to get it... search->advanced search->google search->slightly different google search, etc.
LOL! I never have bad results when I search for virgins! If one word is in the thread, you'll get it, unless you only search the titles.
I find that the built-in search functions are pretty lame on most forums, vBulletin or phpBB. I suspect nevetS is correct when he identifies it as a database search issue. If it's a well-indexed forum like DP, I usually get better results using the "search this site" feature from the Google toolbar.
Search in forums is near useless. I have to mod my phpbb a lot in order to make it worth it. I hear on phpbb they are going to hook up the search engine pretty good.
example... search forums (regular search) august search engine strategies conference PHP: The thread about the SES Conference is the third from the last listed on the page.
If you do a boolean advnced search you will get there with no problems... as I said, you just need to use all the search options, you can't expect to get exactly what you want for example when visiting google, that's why they have all the + - " options